Parenting Tips and Tools

The Whinge Factor: How to Stay Calm!  Child: Can I have…. Adult: No. Child: When can I have…. Adult: I said No! Child: Why can’t I have… Adult: The answer is NO! Child: Well I want.... Adult: How many times do I have to say NO! Child: BUT I WANT IT… Adult: YOU ARE NOT LISTENING TO ME, THE ANSWER IS NO!!! We have all been there. Our child wants something and for whatever reason they can’t have it! Yet children have an amazing ability to incessantly plague us and whinge until (A)    They break us down and we give in Or (B) It ends up in a shouting match and tears The following is a Life Coaching technique that I have applied to situations like this. Replace “No” with two simple, interchangeable statements and the whole tone of the conversation changes: ·          Explain clearly at the outset the reason why the child can’t have it (e.g. maybe they are being puni...

We are all now back fully immersed the school routine, and again faced with the daily task of wondering what to put in our kids lunchboxes. The struggle to come up with ideas, in order to avoid the soul destruction that is opening the lunchbox after school to find our perfectly edible lunches nibbled or worse untouched! The following is a really easy milkshake I make for the kids one day a week (usually a Thursday, as then I can console myself I have only one more day left in the week to come up with another idea). They love it and it's one day I'm guaranteed to open an empty lunchbox after school! 1 banana Glass of Milk Raw Cacao Powder (roughly 1 teaspoon) Put all the ingredients in the Nutri Bullet (or any blender), Blitz and Pour!  (You can also add in a tablespoon of peanut butter provided your school allows nut products). Separately, I add some crackers, a couple of slices of cheese and a few grapes for some extra sustenance. That's Thursdays lunch s...

Every September, there is one parent left standing in the schoolyard whose child has to be physically pried from them, crying and screaming because they don't want to go to school.....one September, I was that parent....... - Starting School - Tips for the Reluctant School Starter! - As you approach the school gates, the little hand feels warm in yours. You hear the chatter and laughter from the school yard, and the hand tightens. Your heart starts beating faster and your stomach muscles tense. You look down into tear filled eyes and you hear the words you’ve been dreading all morning “I don’t want to go to school….” A few years ago, my youngest started school and happily skipped in for the first few days. He then informed me, that actually he’d had enough school and would much rather stay with me. Cue tears, screaming, clinging and physical extraction from me at the school door every morning. I had recently qualified as an NLP Practitioner, I thought to myself, ‘what have I...